Down the taffy colored hallways of the candy castle, Peppermint Butler did as was his duty, escorting the rather unexpected guest toward his mistress' inner chambers. It had been many a year since the visitor had come, her last departure not one of pleasant terms, her last words a vile oath to never set foot within the orange-hued corridors of this 'poorly painted saccharine caricature of sweetness and light' she had called it while the banana foster guards had escorted her out. She had sworn never to return, but here she was, and at his mistress' behest, no less. Reaching the large set of double doors he turned, raising his gaze to the face of his escorted visitor, floating over his head with lazy grace. "The lady is within this chamber, shall I announce you?"

"Please do, Peppermint Butler, I wouldn't dare break with proper protocol."

Peppermint butler turned and opened the doors, "Announcing the arrival of her royal majesty, Marceline, the vampire queen."

Parasol in hand, the vampire drifted past the butler and into the inner sanctum of her dubious ally, Princess Bubblegum. "Good afternoon, Bonnibel, lovely weather we're having, yes?" Her eyes were drawn around the laboratory's interior; each work station and apparatus had been pushed to the outermost borders of the space, permitting a number of display boards to be brought in. Each white surface was carefully covered with a marked up scenario, depicting a certain human boy and his romantic interest, and how they might be divided.

Princess Bonnibel Bubblegum, in the midst of working out another such scenario, waved absently at her servant. "That is all, Peppermint Butler, you may go. Please ensure that we are not interrupted."

"As you wish, my lady." He departed silently, closing the doors behind him.

Marceline chuckled as she drifted around the room, examining each scenario with a thoughtful eye. "It's been years since I came here last." She sighed wistfully, "There are a lot of memories to be had here, eh Bonnibel?"

"Do you really think that now is the best time to be waxing nostalgic?"

Her voice saccharine, Marceline replied "Ah, now there's the Bonnibel I remember." Her red eyes gleamed with chained fury.

The princess' voice was hard as she turned, "I thought you were going to keep him safely neutral. Having you as his 'bud' was supposed to be enough to prevent this sort of thing from transpiring. Clearly I overestimated your ability to be entertaining."

"Don't pin this on me." The vampire queen's voice became hard as well, "He's been chasing after YOU all these years. Don't you think it was a little unrealistic to assume that you could string him along, neither confirming nor denying his feelings, and he would never want more than that?" Her laugh was harsh and forced, "For a genius, that's a rather stupid expectation."

"How dare you," Bubblegum scowled and shook her fist; "I am the foremost intellect in this entire kingdom."

Marceline crossed her arms, "From here, you're just another candy person with a silly hat."

Face screwed into a furious pout, Bubblegum was taken off guard when the vampire descended quickly, bringing herself into very intimate closeness with the princess. "Marceline?"

"What happened to us, Bonnie?" Marceline asked her quietly, her floating body close enough that Bubblegum could feel the coolness radiating from her skin. "I remember the Princess I met when I first came here; curious about the first non-candy person she'd met aside from Lumpy Space Princess, curious about what a vampire was, wondering what I ate, where I slept. You were so inquisitive. That's why I kept coming around," her smile was bittersweet, "I hated the pomp and circumstance of Ooo royalty. I never asked to be vampire queen, but after killing him, someone had to step in. Your mother hated me. Queen Cotton Candy used to find so many ways to try and keep you occupied when the meetings came up, but you always found a way to sneak in." Bubblegum's anger seemed to taper off as the reminiscing took hold of her. "But my favorite was sixteen year old Princess Bubblegum."

"It would be," Bonnibel said with a soft smile. "My rebellious phase."

"Bonnibel Bubblegum, dressed in black licorice." The girls giggled in unison, "Wasn't going to be the princess, wasn't going to learn princess-y ways, just wanted to run away and join a band."

"Join your band." Bubblegum sighed, "I was so stupid back then."

"You were algebraic." Marceline's voice became huskier, "I remember the first time you asked me to drink your red, just a little, so the queen wouldn't notice you getting pinker."

"Not that you were a paragon of self-control."

"Is that spot still white?"

Marceline's question caused the princess to blush a deep scarlet, turning away quickly, her hand unconsciously drifting toward the waistline of her dress. She fidgeted for several long minutes, "It's better now," she responded too quickly.

As Marceline looked deeply into Bubblegum's eyes, she could see the path of their history together. The first meeting, her awkwardness over how inquisitive Bonnibel had been, never afraid to ask a question that might have adult connotations. Years of sneaking behind the queen's back, hanging out, playing music together, being best friends. The, as Bubblegum became older, her interests started to mature as well; Marceline remembered holding her hand, sitting together at the movies. Then the king passed away, and Marceline remembered her shirt soaked with sugary tears, and a hungry kiss that begged not to be left alone.

They crossed a threshold that night, they went into a deeper territory than they had ever even dreamed of. Reds were always sweet, but Bonnibel was the princess, and hers was the sweetest red of all. It quickly became impossible to stay away from her, to stop wanting the taste, and rebellious Princess Bubblegum was eager to drown the vampire queen in her unique sweetness. By the time the princess was drawing near her eighteenth birthday, they were meeting almost nightly. A sudden shift in Bubblegum's eyes told Marceline that they were both reaching the same memory; discovery, the queen stumbling in and fainting, and her sudden and unexpected passing. Bonnibel became the new ruler of the Candy Kingdom, and she couldn't look the vampire in the eyes anymore. That was where it ended.

It ended a second time, in that instant. Bubblegum's eyes became hard and cold, and she moved away from Marceline with quick steps. "You want to know what happened to 'us', Marceline? I grew up." The words stung, for both of them. "My mother walked in and saw something that she never should have seen, that never should have happened. You know what her last words were to me?"

"I don't want to know." Marceline felt sick.

"Bonnibel, you need to be strong for the kingdom now. You need to be a proper ruler, one who is above foolish teenage rebellions." She turned to glare harshly at the vampire, "So I did. That's what happened to us; one of us had to grow up, and it wasn't you. I grew up and put my people before me, and discovered I didn't have the time or freedom to dally in rebellious, deviant behaviors."

That was what set Marceline off; if she'd just decided she wasn't there anymore, or that she'd found someone else, that would have been acceptable. It would have hurt, but it would have at least been a real reason. But to deride what went between them, to belittle it with cruel words. That was unacceptable. Her eyes flared red and her whole body seemed to shudder for an instant, almost changing shape. "Deviant behaviors . . . of course . . ."

Her demeanor changed; the pain, the anger, was gone. A cold smile split her face. "Of course." Marceline was poised and controlled. "You know why I like you, Bonnibel? You're SAFE. You've always been safe, Bonnibel, and that's why I like you. Because I know I can come and go from Finn's life, and you'll NEVER be a threat to me."

Princess Bubblegum seemed dumbstruck by this change. " . . . That's makes no sense." She smiled coldly, "It seems like once a week you're playing some silly game with him, leading him away from his heroic responsibilities. You spend more time sidetracking Finn than I do researching Plumboletric Neucleosugar Theory."

"Yes. playing." The vampire queen chuckled darkly. The sound sent shivers down the princess' spine. "Biding my time. Don't you think that Finn's still a little . . . young? BUT, you give him three, four years . . . well . . . " She bit her finger teasingly, "I imagine that eighteen-year-old Finn the Vampire King will be a lot of fun, for a very long time. And trust me," she drifted around in a sultry way, her long midnight hair creeping around her face, "I could keep him MUCH too busy to save you from the Ice King, or the Lich King, or any other of the silly things that you seem to need his special kind of problem solving for."

Bubblegum turned away from her work, immediately very aware of Marceline and very unhappy about it. For the first time, Bubblegum regarded Marceline not as a playful distraction, but as a potential object of romantic interest. Her beauty was more dark, exotic, while Bubblegum was sweet, smart, and royalty; two of those three things, Finn didn't really care about. An eighteen-year-old Finn would require more distraction than playful experiment testing, unusual get-togethers, and the odd quest. He would want more from her . . . no, from whoever he was with, because she hadn't returned his advances. For the first time, she realized that she wasn't the girl beside him anymore. She'd allowed herself to be replaced. "Oh glob!" The shock made her pale and sent Marceline into wracking peals of laughter.

"And it finally hits home," the vampire queen licked her lips, "How delicious. For the first time, Bonnibel Bubblegum is the dumb one."

"A problem easily remedied." Bubblegum slipped off her lab coat and slung it across the nearest table. "I shall find Finn and renew our connection."

"It's going to take more than liquid pyrotechnics and candy zombies to fix this." Marceline grinned, "We make music together; we run with the wolves. What do you two share?"

"My very existence made him a hero." Bubblegum marched toward the door, "and every hero needs a princess; to rescue, to pine for, to one day win"

"Then it's a duel," Marceline descended, her ruby red boots clicking on the floor. "We both go and show our hands, offer ourselves up. See which of us can take the heat," she laughed again, "So to speak."

As the pair left, neither of them noticed Lumpy Space Princess in her vantage point outside the laboratory window. Neither did she notice the departure of the princess and her rival, as she was too busy exclaiming into her cell phone, "Oh MY GLOB, Hotdog Princess, you will not LUMPING believe what I just heard . . ."


Author's Notes: Oh my GLOB, you guys! In just one month, this story has 110 reviews and over 6500 hits. WOW. That makes this story officially the highest rated, read, and reviewed story I have ever put up on this site, and in just one month; I have stories that were put up years ago and don't have this much attention. I promise that I will get into the battle next update, swear to Abraham Lincoln, but I wanted to go deeper into Bubblegum and Marceline's past, present, and future. Oh, and by the way . . .

THIS IS THE COOLEST THING THAT HAS EVER HAPPENED, AND IT IS ALL THANKS TO YOU, MY MNARVELOUS READERS. THANK YOU ALL SO VERY, VERY MUCH! YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME!

Beginning and the End- Glad you're still reading, I promise to keep up the tempo.

Team Fang- The gender-bending episode was one of the most highly acclaimed episodes on the show. I had to use it somewhere. I think the potential for differentiation between the stories, based on gender alone, makes it fascinating.

Pjmunky- Gotta love Marshal Lee. Natasha Allegri drew a gender swap for Flame Princess, but has yet to (publically) do anything with it. I wanted to beat her to the punch. ^_^

Motherbirdnerd- I like the idea that some of the princesses (princes) have actual names, not just species-oriented titles (Slime Princess, Hotdog Princess, and so on).

Lord Xantos A. Fowl- What, you didn't like Spearmint Butleress? ^_^ As for Cake, she does have the same powers as Jake, but they never indulge where her powers come from.

Dragonbornmatt-I wanted to make sure that the story was a satisfying read for people who wanted love and action. Like me!

Writer of Epics- I wish I could put a clip of a song at the head of each chapter, to suggest people listen to a song on repeat while reading. Because yes, this is friggin' WAR, and I think I came up with a clever way to handle the Ice Queen.

Aquayzar777- Good to see you, it's been awhile! Glad you liked it. ^_^

Norkix- I wanted to make it as canon as I could, because there's nothing I like less than stories that throw the creator's world off its axis. This is FAN-fiction, for glob's sake. Anyway
1) Yes, and while it would be weird for a 1000 year old vampire to be warm for a 14yr old human, when he hits eighteen, well, he'd be somewhat more tasty, yeah?
2) Yeah, his official name is Marshall Lee. Which kind of makes sense, because the names Marshall and Marceline are both Greek derivatives of the god Mars.

Sunshine loving devil- Thanks for dropping me a PM, here's your update. ^_^

Alphakitty- Glad you like it . . . as for Marshall Lee Fionna, you'll have to wait and see. In a world where the hero is the girl, surrounded by hormone-driven princes that she saves on a regular basis, she's bound to have MANY suitors.

Xanbyr- Glad you like it. First of all, as Fionna is a female (obviously) she's not going to be a pursuant, as Finn would be. Boys are psychologically more aggressive than girls, especially in regards to hormones. Second, while Flame Princess may be an impulsive but ultimately serene figure, I can't help but imagine the Flame Prince as more of a "British Punk Rock" sort of character, much more aggressive and standoff-ish (somewhat Prince Zuko-ish). Third, out of all the princes (except, perhaps, Jungle Prince), I could see him declaring Fionna as HIS woman, which would torque her off.

Chabitso.0- I once read a philosopher who believed that the greatest inspirations that came to writers were actually parallel dimensions that briefly touched his mind. I figure, "Hell, Ice King is NUTS, the land of Aaa could be an actual place he sees with his Stanky Wizard Eyes."

Devilindistress- Glad you like it. I can't say there is going to be a lot of Aaa, but at least one more chapter.

Demonbloodfeeder- Being as Flame Princess spends most of her time in a lamp-like prison to keep her subjects from being turned into flambits, I think that Marceline would have seen her in the palace, but not really talked to her.

ButtercupBash- I can see your logic, but here's mine.
1) She white-washed them both, not just yelled. I think that throwing cold water on their posturing was a much more effective thing to do.
2) Fionna is, while certainly as much a fighter as Finn, more intelligent in her approach. We see a lot of Finn blindly throwing himself into his fights, while Fionna seems somewhat more logical in her general approaches.
3) Fionna is kind of girly, she's a girl. I don't think that any of the gender flips would be entirely mirror images. Consider the Ice King/Queen: Ice King is very blunt in his magic, always throwing ice bolts and summoning ice beasts. Ice Queen drew a slush beast around herself to double as a defensive shield, and she also waged psychological warfare on Fionna using her crush as a weapon. Ice King is, by his own admission, too far gone to be a strategic thinker.

IceEagle9- Glad you like it. I know my grammar and prose isn't textbook flawless, I've always favored writing in the style of natural dialogue, rather than by the rules.

Bigredfox- Glad you're enjoying it. ^_^

Nico Ricafrente- Some people would think of that as twincest. Seems more like self-love to me . . .

Ray-the-1st- Glad you're enjoying the story, I hope you'll stick around. ^_^

Gold Testament- Stay tuned, it's only going to get freakier.